TORONTO (September 22, 2023) – Badminton Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have announced the composition of the Canadian badminton team named to compete at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
Here are the badminton athletes on Team Canada – for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games:
Athletes
Rachel Chan (Markham, ON)
Catherine Choi (Markham, ON)
Adam Dong (Burlington, ON)
Kevin Lee (Winnipeg, MB)
Ty Lindeman (St. Albert, AB)
Josephine Wu (Edmonton, AB)
Nyl Yakura (Pickering, ON)
Brian Yang (Richmond Hill, ON)
Eliana Zhang (Montreal, QC)
Wendy Zhang (Richmond, C.-B.)
Athletes qualified for a spot on Team Canada by accumulating points based on the results they achieved during the qualification period extending from September 1, 2022 to August 30, 2023. As per occasion of Tokyo 2020, when Team Canada qualified the largest Olympic squad in its badminton history, the maximum quota of five women and five men qualified for Santiago 2023 — an even larger contingent than the Canadian team had allocated at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
Brian Yang will be making his second appearance at the Pan American Games. The current top-ranked player in the Americas among men won silver in men’s singles at Lima 2019. Yang loves representing Team Canada at Big Games. At the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, Yang won gold in the mixed team relay event. He competed in his first Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, where he was the youngest member of the Canadian badminton team. Later that year, Yang was named one of Team Canada’s flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the Cali 2021 Junior Pan American Games. He went on to win gold in both the men’s singles and mixed doubles events. with her teammate Rachel Chan, who won gold in the women’s singles.
At Cali 2021, the inaugural edition of the Junior Pan American Games, Canada was dominant, winning gold in each of the three events on the program. The gold medals won in the singles events earned Yang and Chan automatic qualification for the Santiago 2023 Games.
“I am always grateful for the opportunity to represent Canada at other major games,” said Yang. This time, I’m even more excited because I’ll have the chance to go all the way after narrowly missing victory at the last Pan American Games. Winning at the Pan American Games is without a doubt one of my goals, hoping that everything I have experienced over the past four years will have given me the tools to get there. »
Josephine Wu, who won mixed doubles gold at the Lima 2019 Games with former playing partner Joshua Hurlburt-Yu, will return to the Pan American Games in hopes of defending her title, this time with Ty Lindeman. Wu and Lindeman won mixed doubles gold at the 2022 Pan American Championships before capturing silver in 2023.
“It’s such a great honor to be chosen for my second Pan American Games,” said Wu. “What I’m most excited about is being able to participate in another multi-sport competition. It’s so special to be at an event of this magnitude. I’m really looking forward to representing Canada again, hopefully winning a medal! »
The Canadian badminton team recently recorded a historic haul of five medals at the 2023 Pan American Individual Championships and will look to win the same number of medals at the Santiago 2023 Games. Team Canada hopes to continue in the same vein and thus give itself a run to go towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Santiago 2023 Games do not qualify directly for Paris, but athletes can still collect valuable BWF world ranking points that will be used in the process Olympic qualification.
“The Pan American Games represent a great opportunity for our athletes on the road to Paris 2024 since the Games are one of the competitions that serve as Olympic qualification,” noted Mike Butler, head coach of the national team. It is also an opportunity for badminton to gain visibility through multi-sport games, and after the successes we experienced at Lima 2019, we have high hopes for our team. We are missing seasoned players in Michelle Li, Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai, who are recovering from injuries, but we have confidence in our team and it is with pleasure that we welcome the members who will experience the Grand Multisport Games for the first time. »
Badminton has been part of the Pan American Games program since Mar del Plata in 1995. Canada currently holds the record for the most medals won in badminton at a Pan American Games, having won a total of 21 gold medals. .
The badminton competition will take place from October 21 to 25 (days 1 to 5) at the Centro de Entrenamiento Olímpico.
“Welcome to the badminton court at the Pan American Games, where shuttlecocks soar like shooting stars! So let’s step into the spotlight, play unforgettable matches and make these clashes a resounding success,” said Christine Girard, Chef de Mission for Team Canada at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
The coaches and support team members of the badminton team for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games are:
Coaches
Mike Butler (Saint-John, NB)- National Team Head Coach
Mario Santoso (Jakarta, Indonesia) – Coach
Support staff
Mike Luck (Montreal, QC) – High Performance Manager
Amie Lee (Halifax, NS) – Team Physiotherapist
Before being confirmed as members of Team Canada, all nominated athletes are subject to approval by the Canadian Olympic Committee team selection committee when all nominations have been received from national sport organizations.
You can find an updated Team Canada roster for the Santiago 2023 Games by clicking here.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Maxine Gauthier, communications and programs officer
Badminton Canada
Such. : 613-518-1501, ext. 2080
Email: mgauthier@badminton.ca
Tara MacBournie
Responsible for sports communications for Team Canada at the Santiago 2023 Games
Canadian Olympic Committee
Cell. : 647-464-4060
Email: [email protected]
2023-09-22 07:00:00
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